Sometimes it is not one game that is most important. Sometimes it is the process that matters the most.

As the Lipscomb Lady Bisons move closer to the half-way point of their season improvement can be seen in a team that has dealt with its share of setbacks this season.

Even in Saturday evening's 72-55 loss to Belmont at Allen Arena there were positives.

"We are getting better," Lipscomb coach Frank Bennett said. "We just have to finish better around the basket. We have some good 3-point shooters. We have to also get some more contributions from the players off of the bench. We are not consistent getting points from there."

Junior point guard Catie Woods scored a game-high 19 points, the sixth time this season she has led the Lady Bisons in scoring. Junior guard Dana Carrigan added 13 points, her third straight double figures game and fourth out of her last five games.

"We are in pretty good shape in the conference," Bennett said. "We have to win some more games to move up a little higher in the seedings. It is very important for us to try to steal some road wins. After Belmont and ETSU the conference is going to be pretty jumbled up."

Jessica Bobbitt scored on a jump shot for Belmont for the first points of the game. Belmont, 7-0 in the Atlantic Sun, never trailed in the game.

Belmont led by as many as 18 points in the first half, but the Lady Bisons fought back going on an 11-2 run that cut the lead to nine at 31-22 on a lay-up by center Penny Jones with 5:32 left before intermission. Belmont went on a 6-2 run to lead 37-24 at the half.

In the second half Belmont led by as many as 21 points, but again the Lady Bisons clawed back cutting the lead to 10 points (48-38) on a pair of free throws by center Katie Rollins with 10:17 left to play.

"We made some runs," Bennett said. "We missed a lot of shots around the basket. If we could have got some of those in it would have helped us out a lot.

"We kept battling back. But we would make a run and not shoot our free throws well. That sort of takes it out of you."

Belmont responded pulling ahead again and controlling the game the rest of the way.

The Lady Bisons committed 17 turnovers. Belmont made 16.

"We had a relatively low turnover game," Bennett said. "It is not great, but 17 in a game probably leads the conference on average right now. We have gotten off of that 25-to-30 turnover threshold."
The Lady Bisons hit 33.3 percent from the field (18-54) and 32 percent from 3-point range (8-of-25). They hit 11-of-20 free throw attempts (55.5 percent).

Belmont hit 28-of-66 shots from the field for a 42.3 percent rate and eight of 26 3-point shots for 30.8 percent. Belmont hit eight-of-13 from the free throw line.

The Lady Bisons are 5-12 overall, 3-4 in the conference. Belmont is 13-4 overall.

The Lady Bisons head to North Carolina for games at Campbell on Jan. 25 and at Gardner-Webb on Jan. 27.

"I warned our team that after playing a rival game it is very easy, whether you win or lose, not to play very well the next time out," Bennett said. "That is not uncommon. You get too high or too low. It makes it hard to get ready for the next game."